Democ­rats lean on labor lead­ers to beat back union shift to Trump

Democ­rats are work­ing to keep a crit­i­cal vot­ing bloc in their camp come Novem­ber, and they are increas­ing­ly rely­ing on union lead­ers for help.
For­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump is hop­ing to build on gains he made with rank-and-file mem­bers of orga­nized labor through his pro­tec­tion­ist poli­cies and attempts to paint the Democ­rats as out-of-touch elites.
But Democ­rats are seek­ing to counter those efforts by giv­ing a big plat­form to the heads of unions, while seem­ing­ly pun­ish­ing those who express open­ness to the GOP’s pop­ulist shift.
The strat­e­gy could be seen at the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion, where Shawn Fain, pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed Auto Work­ers, led the crowd in call­ing Trump a “scab” and “lap­dog of the bil­lion­aire class.”
“Kamala Har­ris is one of us,” Fain said in …